Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Last weekend we got invited over to our friends Anna and Beau to meet Beau's lovely parents.

Therefore and also because I went a little "cooking crazy"

I prepared all kinds of summer food stuff to bring and eat.

I already posted the Gazpacho which was one of the things I made.

But I also felt like trying out more new things!

I've never ever prepared eggplant myself.

So I decided to make these little grilled eggplant pockets:

For 8 pockets you'll need:

2 big long eggplants

2 plum tomatos (these are the long ones!) cut into a total of 16 slices

225g / 8 slices mozzarella (preferably buffalo mozzarella!)

16 basil leaves

salt, pepper

Vinaigrette:

1 tbsp tomato purrée

1 tbsp Balsamico vinegar

4 tbsp Olive oil

salt, pepper, sugar or honey

Garnish:

Roasted Pine nuts

roughly chopped basil leaves

To prepare the eggplants first remove the stems,

then cut each fruit in 8 thin slices (lengthwise!) of approx. 5mm thickness.

The pieces at the edges do not count.

Boil the slices in salted water for a maximum of about 2 minutes

(they should not be completely cooked yet).

Dry them between sheets of paper towel.

Cut each tomato and the mozzarella in 8 slices.

Now take two eggplant slices and lay them on top of each other in the shape of a cross.

Put a slice of tomato in the middle, season it with salt and pepper and top it off with a basil leaf one slice of mozzarella, again a basil leaf and another slice of tomato seasoned with salt and pepper.

Now flip the ends of the eggplant over the little tomato-basil-mozzarella tower and form a pocket.

It doesn't really matter which eggplant slice you start with.

It just should all stick together and look neat in the end...

Now coat both sides of each pocket with a thin layer of olive oil

and throw it on the grill of your hibachi!

Grill for about 5 minutes each side (depends a bit on how hot the hibachi is).

The mozarella should start melting

In case you don't have a hibachi you can also sear them in a pan.

Same thing: 5 minutes each side.

For the vinaigrette mix tomato purrée, balsamico and olive oil and season to taste with salt pepper and a bit of sugar or honey.

Sprinke the vinaigrette and roasted pine nuts such as chopped basil leaves

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Summer is approaching and it's steadily getting hotter and unfortunately more and more humid here in Berlin.
A good reason to dig out refreshing and light summer recipes.
I started off with Gazpacho a cold spanish tomato based raw vegetable soup.
This sounds awful, I know.
But, let me tell you, it was pretty damn good!
It is really easy to cook, the ingredients are cheap, and it certainly helps to keep or get back into summer shape (I know with most of us, this is, of course, not the case...).

Peel the tomatos.
Therefore place them in boiling water first (for about 30 seconds) and then quench the tomatos in ice cold water.
That way it's easier to remove the tougher skin.
It will come off easily now.
Quarter the tomatos.
Peel and chop the cucumber.
Cut the peppers and the red chilli and remove the seeds.
Press or finely chop the garlic cloves.
Mix all the vegetables together with breadcrumbs, olive oil, white wine vinegar and tomato purrée.
Season to taste with salt, pepper and cumin.
Put half or a third of the mixture into a blender.
Add 150-250ml of water, depending on how juicy the vegetables are.
Blend until smooth.
Do the same with the rest of the vegetable mix.
The Gazpacho should not be too thin but have a rather creamy texture.
Therefore be careful not to add too much water.
You can always add more in the end.
Refrigerate it for a couple of hours.

Best served with ice cubes, croutons, some basil or parsley for decoration and maybe a dash of worcester sauce!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

After a couple of days of acclimatization I guess I’m finally ready for Berlin City again.

Well, I have to be anyway...

My trip to Provence was simply wonderful and a total success in terms of food, wine and love.

As I already mentioned in my last post: This region of France is a feast for your senses.

The landscape is beautiful. It smells like flowers, fruits, fresh soil and food everywhere.

It is quiet except for the lovely sound of singing birds and the crickets at night.

And wine and food are so, so good!

By far the best country to visit in order to indulge your desire for culinary richness.

Depending on where you stay you will find vineyards who offer you wine degustations every few metres. With hundreds, probably thousands of different vineyards it’s impossible to try all wines in the region. You either have a recommendation on where to go or you just go and find out.

We did both and it was a lot of fun.

I will write a separate blog post about the wines we tried later this week...

The other great thing is that there are markets every day.

They either start in the early morning and go until 12am/1pm or at night from 6pm to 8pm.

The best market is definitely the one in Arles.

It is HUGE!

I have never been to such a fantastic market in my life.

The range of fresh products is insane!

So many vegetables and fruits: Giant artichokes, tiny artichokes, zucchinis, fresh garlic, beans, peppers, carrots, potatoes, strawberries, cherries, oranges, olives..., and all were in season. Only some were imported from Spain, which pretty much is right around the corner.

The sea is only about an hour away. Therefore everything is absolutely fresh.

I bought Wil some oysters cause I don’t like them, yet.

But according to my experience in getting used to all kinds of foods, this might change at some point.

They were the biggest and best oysters he ever had in his life and, believe it or not, they were only 40 CENTS A PIECE!!!!

Ok, so that was in Arles... you can pretty much find all these different products on the other markets as well. But let me tell you: the market in Arles is one of a kind.

We left with heavy bags filled with yumminess.

What we did pretty much every day was: cruising around, stopping here and there for wine degustations or walking over a market, maybe a church, a fort or a flea market in between, paying a visit to the local butcher and cheese store, driving home, eating, drinking, falling asleep.

In one word:

PARADISE!

Oh, and on a side note:

Wil proposed to me in a vineyard in Chateau-Neuf du Pape (where else?), and I said yes!

As you can see, Provence treated me very good and I cannot wait to go back!

Friday, May 13, 2011

So I'm back from Provence.
One week of in my opinion the best smelling, best looking and best tasting region of the world.
I made tons of photos, bought and ate plenty of food and drank gallons of incredibly good wine.
But more about that later.

First of all I'm very proud to present you the two reviews I wrote for the Berlin special of the urbanite section of SOMA magazine (LA, USA).

I wrote both articles in English which makes me even prouder since English is not my native language.
You probably noticed that already.
I had great help from Wil and Jesi Khadivi who edited my articles.

Everyone is happy and acting peaceful.
No matter if families or mums with prams, punks, ravers, metalheads, hipsters or turkish hiphop and beakdancers.

It's a big celebration, at least as long as the sun isn't setting.

As soon as it gets dark I would highly recommend to leave this place.
The best indication is when the stands start packing up hectically or when the special police squads put on their helmets and start grouping and running around...
Well in the last case it might already be too late.

You can smell and see the smoke from far away.

However, I mainly come there for the food and the atmosphere.
My favorite stand is the one with the jerk chicken of carribean soul food restaurant Ya-Man.
Each year they sell chicken legs that they smoke in their converted metal drums.

Tonight we will eat the leftovers from yesterdays chicken...
I'm already hungry.